My all-time favourite male singer is Elvis Presley. My all-time favourite female singer is Francoise Hardy. There is no obvious connection between the two. You could never, for instance, imagine Francoise belting out ‘Hound Dog.’ But take a listen to the tracks on her 1972 album, Et Si Je M’en Vais Avant Toi, where there is a strong blues element. And consider that rock’n’roll constituted only a part of the music that Elvis performed. He wasn’t always belting it out and shaking a leg.
The connections are actually pretty clear. Francoise Hardy was one of the new breed of French pop singers. Whilst she isn’t quite one of the yé-yé singers, she did perform songs in that category and was one of that generation. Many think the ‘yeah yeah yeah’ came from The Beatles and ‘She Loves You.’ Hearing the song, Paul McCartney’s father asked Paul whether he couldn’t change the words to ‘yes, yes, yes,’ complaining that there are too many Americanisms creeping into the English language. The ‘yeah yeah yeah,’ of course, came from Elvis’ number one smash hit ‘All Shook Up.’
Francoise Hardy has spoken many times of how her interest in music was inspired by Elvis. She heard Elvis and, with a gift of a guitar, decided to focus on singing and songwriting at the Petit Conservatoire de la chanson, a French-speaking radio and television program, which had the format of a singing class. She was a big Elvis fan, and, in fact, got her big break singing an Elvis song, ‘I Gotta Know.’ For the life of me I can’t imagine Francoise singing this song, but there it is – it was her rendition of the song that won her a recording contract with Vogue in France. It was third time lucky for her, her auditions at EMI and Philips had ended in tears as they turned her down, advising her to take singing lessons. You can’t go wrong with Elvis!
So there it is, the B-side of Elvis’ ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ was responsible for launching the singing, songwriting career of one of the most endearing figures of popular music. I believe Eddy Mitchell did a version of "Je T'aime Trop" (French version of “I Gotta Know”), and Les Chaussettes Noires. Nothing against Eddy, but I’m more interested in the Elvis connection with respect to Francoise Hardy. She continued to explore Elvis b-sides and obscurities. At a time when the world was starting to see Elvis as lost in Hollywood, the fans knew he was still making fine music. It may not have been the rock’n’roll of old, and it may have been increasingly drowned by film soundtracks, but the good songs were still there. It seems that Francoise Hardy was paying close attention to the new soft Elvis ballads, incorporating them into her own distinctive style. She has cited ‘Where do you come from,’ a track that has been almost completely overlooked, as a song that she drew on for ‘Dans le Monde Entier/All over the world.’ The song came from the film ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’, a travelogue, sun’n’fun film in which Elvis plays a singing tuna fisherman … As bad as many of the Elvis films and their soundtracks were, they do contain the odd gem (and it there is also entertainment value in hearing Elvis attempt to redeem the irredeemable with that beautiful voice he had).
‘Where do you come from’ cannot be dismissed as ‘film fodder,’ whatever its origins. It is an ultra-cool ballad light years away from ‘Hound Dog.’ As the model for Francoise’s self-penned ‘Dans le Monde Entier,’ it became a huge hit in the UK as ‘All Over the World’ in 1965. Here, in the middle of Beatlemania, was a little bit of the new Elvis, mediated in distinctively French tones. I always thought ‘All Over the World’ sounded a lot like Roy Orbison’s ‘Too soon to know,’ which came after. I always thought the Big-O had been listening to Francoise. Of course, he was listening to Elvis. If you can, find that quote where Roy sings the praises of the great Elvis ballad ‘It Hurts Me’ from 1964. Singers and artists were still listening to Elvis in the sixties, hearing his good stuff.
Compare to Francoise’s ‘Dans le Monde Entier’
and ‘All over the World.’
In truth, this kind of ballad can be heard consistently in Elvis’ career
As Long as I Have You from 1958
Can’t Help Falling in Love in 1961 (also based on Plaisir d’Amour)
Am I Ready? From 1966
In an interview, Francoise singles out Elvis’ “Where Do You Come From” as a key influence upon her style of soft lyrical balladry:
Elvis Presley was an important influence, and we all love him very, very, very much. I wrote a song called “All Over the World,” which was influenced by this kind of ballad so much that the British musician I was working with, Charles Blackwell, put choirs behind me who sounded exactly like [Presley’s background singers] the Jordanaires. I think that had something to do with the success that song had in England.
Back in the ’60s, when he wasn’t performing, I always said, “The day Elvis comes back to the stage, I will go to see his show.” When it happened, at the beginning of the ’70s, I made the trip to Las Vegas. I was not disappointed at all. I was amazed. ("French Icon Françoise Hardy on the Music of Her Life", online).
I can’t picture Francoise at Las Vegas, and I can’t picture her as a fan of the Las Vegas Elvis. But there it is. Elvis was not all of a piece, and isn’t to be judged by caricature. He could still be amazing in the 1970s.
To finish, compare and contrast Francoise’ first hit song ‘Tous les garcons and les filles’ with Elvis’ ‘Young and Beautiful.’ I always hear the song as very American (listen to the Pony Tails and their ‘Born too late,’ for instance). The connection with Elvis’ original ‘Young and Beautiful’ isn’t obvious. But listen to Elvis singing it in rehearsal in 1972. The connection seems obvious to me.